A chat with... Jim Lisher

Jim Lisher, New Canaan resident and recentley re-elected board member of the World Affairs Forum.

Jim Lisher, New Canaan resident and recentley re-elected board member of the World Affairs Forum.

Photo: Contributed Photo

Photo: Contributed Photo

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Jim Lisher, New Canaan resident and recentley re-elected board member of the World Affairs Forum.

Jim Lisher, New Canaan resident and recentley re-elected board member of the World Affairs Forum.

Photo: Contributed Photo

A chat with... Jim Lisher

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NEW CANAAN — For more than 30 years, Jim Lisher has called New Canaan home.

Following a long career in marketing, Lisher, now 79, opened Lisher and Co., where he led planning and new product development for major companies for 31 years before retiring in 1998.

After his official retirement, Lisher focused his attention on nonprofits, bringing STRIVE, a low-income job training program to Connecticut. He served for 10 years as the chairman of New Canaan’s Health and Human Services Commission, for three years as the chairman of the town’s Aging Commission, and recently helped to facilitate a public-private partnership to launch iSTEP, a telehealth initiative that enables local seniors to age in place in their homes.

On June 8, Lisher was re-elected for a second term to the board of directors of the World Affairs Forum, a Stamford-based nonprofit that offers monthly programs meant to engage people in the community on world issues.

Q: Where are you from originally?

A: I’m from Topeka, Kan., but I’ve been in New York and Connecticut for longer than I was in Kansas. I went to work for Procter and Gamble after two years with the Army stationed in New Jersey. Then I went to Chicago for a year as a Keebler elf (Lisher worked for the Keebler Co.). Then I worked for the company now known as Nabisco and set out on my own in 1970 or thereabouts.

Q: Why did you come to New Canaan?

A: We moved to Connecticut because of our children. We had always planned to live in Greenwich, and we actually had a weekend and summer place in Westport. But we didn’t find a house in Greenwich when we were looking. We’re on our second house now in New Canaan.

Q: Prior to your work with nonprofits you had a successful career in marketing and as an entrepreneur. When did you start getting involved with nonprofits? What was the reasoning for the switch from marketing to nonprofits?

Basically, my practice and a lot of my life is based around being an entrepreneur. I started a business in which I was a corporate entrepreneur. And at some point in my late 50s, I decided it was time to become a social entrepreneur.

Q: Two of your more recent entrepreneurial initiatives have involved advocating for the health of the elderly in New Canaan, both through the organizations iSTEP and TIPS. What was the inspiration behind iSTEP?

A: Both use exactly the same tool bag. It’s telehealth tech that takes vital signs. The difference is iSTEP focuses on keeping seniors aging in place. TIPS focuses on low-income, high-risk people.

Users send in their vital signs — including blood pressure and pulse — and we also give everybody a Fitbit and they report their weekly steps into a weekly online dashboard.

There are some people who have used it for two or three years and gives you an average of what your blood pressure is, what your vital signs are, so you know when there’s a major bump in the road. There’s a tele-nurse based in Vince Cottage who oversees the data and looks for any aberration.

Q: When did you first become involved with the World Affairs Forum?

A: I would guess probably at least eight years ago. This will be my second term on the board.

Q: Why did you decide to get involved with the World Affairs Forum?

A: I’m a voracious reader of things that have to do with world affairs. Obviously, it is a world economy at this stage of the game. And I had a number of friends already involved who invited me a number of times.

The forum provides a fantastic window into what is going on across the world.